Tag Archives: abuse

Much like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty is another well known fairy tale that Disney adopted. Also like it, the original version was cleansed of many of the more violent and disturbing portions. The story is based on an earlier, Italian fairy tale, “Sola, Luna, e Talia” (“Sun, Moon, and Talia”).

In that version, the princess was not awakened by a kiss. Rather, a king who was out hunting stumbles across her sleeping and, when unable to rouse her, rapes her, impregnating her with twins which she bears while still asleep. When unable to suckle, one instead sucks on her finger drawing out the flax that put her to sleep and she awakens. The queen eventually finds out about this and, instead of having any ire for the king, decides that the children should be cooked and eaten, but the cook substitutes lamb. The fake feast is served to the king. Still, the queen decides to have Talia burned at the stake, but the king discovers this and has the queen burned instead and then marries Talia.

The story ends with the lines: “Lucky people, so ’tis said, He who has luck may go to bed, And bliss will rain upon his head.”

The moral? If you’re lucky, you can be a rapist and good things will happen!

Yes. This is what Disney is based on.

But things were changed. Like the name of the princess. She is now named Aurora after the morning dawn…. Of course, aurorae have nothing to do with the dawn. Rather they are glowing interactions when charged particles blown off the sun during highly energetic electromagnetic events and then funneled down through the Earth’s atmosphere, mostly at the poles, by magnetic fields. When they strike the particles in our atmosphere, it ionizes them and upon recombination, light is emitted.

Typically, this phenomenon is limited to the far northern latitudes, but when the Sun gets really violent, they can be seen at much lower latitudes. Just last year, a good solar storm made them visible here in Missouri where I spotted them as a glowing red cloud in the Northern sky. In 1859, there was a solar storm that was so large aurorae were even seen at latitudes as low as the Caribbean! This was known as the Carrington event and was caused by a solar flare that was so bright, it was visible to the naked eye.

Anyway, the princess’ name again changes as she’s adopted by three fairy godmothers who call her Briar Rose to hide her from the evil Maleficent who is a self described mistress of all evil. Maleficent is a character that I quite like, ultimately because of her major role in the Kingdom Hearts series.

She puts a curse on the pricess that will cause her to die when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday. But one of the fairy godmothers weakens the curse with her magic making her fall asleep until kissed by her True Love™.

On her 16th birthday, when Maleficent’s curse is to come true, the fairy godmothers finally use their magic to make her a cake and a dress, but it ends up tipping Maleficent off and she ensures the girl finds the spindle.

The fairy godmothers realize they stole the girl away from her family for 16 years and dropped the ball at the last second, decide to stage a cover up by putting the entire kingdom to sleep. Which makes little sense. The princess was already betrothed to the prince. So why would the fairy godmother have required that the kiss be from some stranger and not him? Did she realize right then that the prince wasn’t likely to be in any way in love with her (despite the blessing of beauty and singing from the other two fairies) and that it was truly a marriage of convenience?

If so, then how did they ever expect the true love to find her?

It’s a weak plot point.

But they eventually figure out that the prince, fortunately, happens to be her True Love™, and hasten to rescue him giving him a sword and shield. He hastens to the princess’ rescue and doesn’t rape her, but instead, kisses her, which is still sexual assault. But she retroactively gives consent which I guess makes it more acceptable. Especially since they live Happily Ever After with a distinct lack of eating children.

The art in the movie is very well done in my opinion. It’s one of the more visually attractive movies as I see it. That, combined with the music, makes it a definite favorite. “Once Upon a Dream” is an absolutely gorgeous song. So much so, that at Naka Kon this year, we included it in our formal ball, even though it didn’t fit the main theme of the convention of being from a Japanese anime or video game.

Fun and Fancy Free is yet another package film (thanks WWII) produced by the Walt Disney Company. It contains a short about a circus bear running away to the wild and a Mickey Mouse version of Jack and the Beanstalk. How are these related? They’re not. Both were originally developed as full features, but due to the war and budgets and whatnot they got shortened and thrown together.

SO! Jiminy Cricket apparently breaks into a house (again) where Cleo happens to be living. However, it is not Gepetto’s house. We’re in America, evidently. Jiminy starts talking to a doll and a stuffed bear after singing a little ditty. What?

Somehow this turns into the story of Bongo the circus bear in a short narrated by Dinah Shore. (She also sang in Make Mine Music) Bear runs away, can’t make it in the wild, meets a cute girl.

Now, I’m not up to par on my bear knowledge….but abusive relationship says what? Given, the song is cutesy and kind of catchy, but WHAT?! I’m with Jon on this one: gonna keep it away from the kiddos.

Fun Fact: Because Bongo was a circus bear, it was a passing thought to have it using the same circus set up and supporting cast (elephants, etc.) as Dumbo.

So after these bears literally beat each other senseless, Jiminy finds an invitation to a birthday party at the house down the way, or some such nonsense. The birthday party contains a young girl, a man, and three ventriloquist puppets. (Apparently the man is some famous guy…still weird.) Creepiest party ever. Yeah, this movie just wouldn’t make it today.

FUN FACT AGAIN!: The young girl, Luana, also appeared in Disney’s Song of the South (that film which Disney chooses to pretend doesn’t exist)

For whatever reason, the gentleman decides to tell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The story features Mickey, Goofy, and Donald who are starving because a magic singing harp got stolen by a giant (just accept it.) Mickey sells his cow to buy magic beans. Beans grow a beanstalk that magically takes Mickey + friends to the giant’s castle. Whatever. You know the story.

Another fun fact: this film is the last time Walt Disney regularly provided Mickey’s voice. He had become too busy running the studios and cigarettes aren’t doing him any favors. After this film, Jimmy MacDonald took over for the voice acting for Mickey. He would remain Mickey until sometime in the 1970s. It is said by some that both Walt and Jimmy can be heard as Mickey in this film.

AND Another Fun Fact: In the original version of Mickey and the Beanstalk, it was supposed to be Foulfellow and Gideon (the fox and the cat from Pinocchio) who were to trade beans for a cow. (Which makes Jiminy and Cleo make a little bit more sense, but not much) In another version, which was actually storyboarded, Mickey got the beans from Queen Minnie.

Now, what is interesting about this rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk is that Disney Co. felt the need to add in a little twist (aside from changing the ending, which the company tends to do with most, if not all, of its stories). For whatever reason, this particular giant has magical powers. He can change his form into anything. He likes being a pink bunny. He can also shrink himself and fly. OH….AND DISAPPEAR.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the story. They didn’t go anywhere with it. It’s not in the original folktale. In the original, the giant says, “Fee Fi Fo Fum. I smell the blood of an Englishman! Be he live or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” Apparently, that’s too violent (but bear slapping isn’t?) so instead “Fee Fi Fo Fum” are magic words to make him do whatever he wants. Okay, so, he’s magic. I can accept that, but why does he not use that to his advantage? Why was it added in? Anyone?

This giant also eats chocolate pot roast.

Another thing:

If “Jack” and his friends had to climb up a beanstalk to get to the giant’s castle, how did the giant steal the magic golden harp in the first place? This castle is in the clouds. How can clouds support the weight of a castle and/or a giant? How did the giant get out of the clouds to steal the harp? Oh okay. Magic.

I’m not going to lie, I’m ready to be into the 1950s.
I’m kind of over these package films.

A Dream a Week

Watching and reviewing 51 Disney and 12 Pixar films in chronological order once a week.